Monday, November 13, 2006

It's MLB Awards season, and the Rookie vote is in: Hanley Ramirez over Ryan Zimmerman, Dan Uggla and Josh Johnson in the NL, and Justin Verlander over Jon Papelbon and Francisco Liriano in the AL.

In the NL, I suppose that Hanley is as good of a choice as any, though I had him 4th, behind Uggla, Johnson and Zimmerman, in that order. As long as the Marlins' many stellar rookies were represented by the winner and the final order, I'm satisfied. Someone will surely know: Has any team ever had such domination in a single season's Rookie of the Year balloting?

As for the AL, I'm all for Verlander; he was the only one of the Big Three to survive the season. But you gotta be smoking some serious New England hype crack to vote Papelbon over Liriano. If you factor out time lost to injuries, Liriano was the best pitcher in the AL. (And, seeing how he's out for '07 and who knows how much longer, the least they could do is give him the freaking runner-up spot.) Papelbon? Yeah, we'll see how he measures up when he converts to a starter next season; I'll bet his Red Sox Nation slurpers that his stats next season -- full or injury-shortened -- don't come close to Liriano's.

Coming tomorrow: NL Cy, which is by far the most wide-open of the awards to be given out. So I put it to you in the Comments section: Who gets your vote for NL Cy? (And what did you think of the Rookie voting?)

P.S.: The Mets and Cards will meet in the '07 season opener. What a perfect way for Cards fans to re-live their 2006 playoffs glory -- and for the Mets to be reminded of what they left on the table when Carlos Beltran struck out looking with the bases loaded to end the series.

Yet Liriano will probably come in second, while Weaver has recieved no discussion whatsoever.

Probably due to what I call the Dontrelle Willis Theory - if a player (esp. a pitcher or a rookie) has a great September, it will go virtually unnoticed b/c all members of the media pick their ROY/Cy Young favorites in August. I'm not saying Weaver should win or be ahead of Liriano, but he should at least get some consideration...

NL Cy - I have no idea. Are we really just now getting to the MLB awards. Didn't the season end like 6 months ago? Sure feels like it. Since I can't seem to remember anything about the season at this point... Zambrano? I don't know.

Pap's stats might not measure up against Liri's as a starter, but at least he's not the 2nd coming of Mark Prior.

See you in '08, when Dan-o will be ready to polish your knob again.

Side note, I think it's fantastic that Hanley got ROY. He would've been in Pawtucket for another year in Boston, and deserved the chance to shine. He'll probably be another Bagwell for WEEI to whine about, but I'm genuinely happy for him.

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DanShanoff.com is a sports-blog spin-off of my long-time ESPN.com column, "The Daily Quickie." Anchored by an early-morning post of must-know topics, the blog is updated frequently throughout the day with new posts and user comments.